Ameila Island soccer club regrouping after $80,000 theft by volunteer

AMELIA ISLAND | The new year couldn’t have come soon enough for Lee Burkett and other leaders of the Amelia Island Youth Soccer league, which is recovering from a painful fall when a trusted volunteer was charged with stealing club money meant to support hundreds of children.

Burkett is the newly elected president of the club’s board of directors, which has taken on a slew of fresh faces in light of the controversy. Burkett declined to equate the changes with the arrest of Ronee Malama. Instead, he said this week the new group of leaders are preparing to kick their spring registration into full gear.

About 300 children played at the club’s fields in the fall.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re ready for the challenge,” Burkett said.

Fernandina Beach police said this week that the original estimate of $60,000 stolen from the club primarily from registration checks over several years is up to about $80,000. Detective Tina Smith attributed the increase to missing cash taken from the seasonal dues.

Malama, whom Burkett said once had several daughters at the club, collected the dues as the club’s registrar.

Police and court records reviewed by the Times-Union this week provided new details that led to Malama’s arrest in November.

The case originally broke after Malama, a clerical worker for the Nassau County Health Department, was charged in July with stealing more than $1,000 from a co-worker’s purse.

The six-week investigation in the Health Department case also involved other thefts from the victim and other employees. Malama’s arrest docket said police questioned five employees and arrested Malama after a second police interview in July revealed information about the initial theft. She was charged with grand theft and fired from her job.

During a search of Malama’s office, Health Department officials found three checks made out to the Amelia Island Youth Soccer league in a paper recycling shred box near Malama’s desk. The checks were then turned over to police.

One of those checks belonged to a parent who had requested a refund for one of her children. Club officials said they didn’t find the registration fee in their records, but the parent showed them a copy of the canceled check showing the payment had been made.

About a month after Malama’s arrest in the Health Department case, soccer club officials met with police to report that they suspected Malama of stealing thousands of dollars from the club. Smith said she then launched an investigation that included an extensive review of Malama’s bank records.

Police records show that from 2011 to 2013, Malama deposited registration checks into her personal bank account. Smith said more than 500 registrations had been diverted.

“Some [checks] were made out to the association, some were made out to her and some weren’t even made out. She was just given blank checks,” Smith said.

Police said the stolen money, including cash, was taken for personal use, but they declined to comment further. Malama remains jailed on $75,000 bail.

Police and court records show no prior arrests for Malama in Florida. She has been the target of a handful of evictions from homes in the Fernandina Beach area over the past few years.

Her former husband, Ryan, also accused her in a divorce case of misappropriating money from their family and a school organization while the couple lived in Hawaii, claims she denied. The divorce was granted in 2011 and her husband was given custody of the couple’s daughters after her arrest. He declined to comment when reached by the Times-Union. None of Malama’s family could be reached for comment.

Burkett said he had known Malama since 2010 and noted she impressed fellow soccer league members as a kind woman who cared deeply about the club.

“She was just very friendly, very outgoing. She was one of the first people to come up and engage you in conversation,” Burkett said. “She truly cared about all the kids.”

News of Malama’s arrest and the missing money continues to leave club members stunned.

“It’s not something we would have expected,” Burkett said.

He said among the changes to club policy to prevent future financial trouble is a switch from collecting registration fees in-person to using its website for people to sign up their children. The website is www.aiysoccer.com.

“It’s been hard, but we’re moving forward,” he said of the controversy. “We’re excited to get the season started.”